Set Free for Higher Dreams

Any real change implies the breakup of the world

as one has always known it,

the loss of all that gave one an identity, the end of safety.

And at such a moment, unable to see and not daring to imagine

what the future will now bring forth,

one clings to what one knew, or dreamed that one possessed.

Yet, it is only when a man is able, without bitterness or self-pity,

to surrender a dream he has long cherished

or a privilege he has long possessed

that he is set free — he has set himself free —

for higher dreams,

for greater privileges.

- James Baldwin